This morning at Ben McNally Books in Toronto, the League of Canadian Poets announced the shortlists for the Raymond Souster Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the winner of the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award.

Raymond Souster Award Shortlist 2014

seldom seen road by Jenna Butler (NeWest Press)

Alongside by Anne Compton (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

Her Red Hair Rises with the Wings of Insects by Catherine Graham (Wolsak & Wynn)

Rebel Women by Vancy Kasper (Inanna Publications)

Brilliant Falls by John Terpstra (Gaspereau Press)

Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain by Russell Thornton (Harbour Publishing)

The Raymond Souster Award is given for a book of poetry by a League of Canadian Poets member (all levels) published in the preceding year. The award honours Raymond Souster, an early founder of the League of Canadian Poets. The award carries a $1,000 prize. This year's jury members are Bruce Hunter, Laurence Hutchman and Sheila Martindale
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Pat Lowther Memorial Award Shortlist 2014

The Hottest Summer in Recorded History by Elizabeth Bachinsky (Nightwood Editions)

Alongside by Anne Compton (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

Leaving Howe Island by Sadiqa de Meijer (Oolichan Books)

Whirr and Click by Micheline Maylor (Frontenac House Poetry)

Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway by Alexandra Oliver (Biblioasis)

Status Update by Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang (Oolichan Books)

The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is given for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman published in the preceding year, and is in memory of the late Pat Lowther, whose career was cut short by her untimely death in 1975. The award carries a $1,000 prize and is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. This year's jurors are Elizabeth Greene, Cornelia Hoogland and Betsy Struthers.
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Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist 2014

the place of scraps by Jordan Abel (Talonbooks)

Rove by Laurie D. Graham (Hagios Press)

Light Light by Julie Joosten (BookThug)

Surge Narrows by Emilia Nielsen (Leaf Press)

The Survival Rate of Butterflies in the Wild by Murray Reiss (Hagios Press)

Incarnate by Juleta Severson-Baker (Frontenac House Poetry)

The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors' tours and took a particular interest in the work of new writers.

The award recognizes the best first book of poetry published by a Canadian in the preceding year. The award carries a $1,000 prize and is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. This year's jurors are Keith Garebian, Carl Leggo and Pearl Pirie.
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The winners of the awards will be announced at the LCP Annual Poetry Festival and Conference in Toronto, ON, on June 7th, 2014.

The league also announced the winner of this year's Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award: acclaimed experimental poet bill bissett.

The League said this of bissett: "We are pleased to honor poet and artist bill bissett for his influence and impact on spoken word in Canada. The award will be presented to bill at the League of Canadian Poets’ Annual Poetry Festival and Conference award gala on June 7th, 2014."

This $1000.00 annual award was created by Sheri-D Wilson — a pioneer of spoken word poetry in Canada — to honour a Canadian spoken word artist who has made a substantial contribution to the development of spoken word, through the originality and excellence of his or her own writing/performance works, and through involvement in — and contributions to — the expansion of the spoken word community. The Golden Beret Award was first presented at the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in 2007. This year marks the first time the League of Canadian Poets has presented the prize.

In China, every emperor looked for
the tone that defined his reign. Sinong
went into the woods to listen for the song
of a certain bird, the sound of one leaf
falling, as it happened, into hot water
when the first cup of tea made itself.

Today we reached the mountain top,
so that all of us freed from the slavery
of others can see the other side; so the
trees that line our boulevards can sigh
with relief and let go of their guilty secrets
when leaves fall into puddles of water.

What comes next, we wonder? These
withered hands are not large enough
to provide shelter from rain, or strong
enough to lift the vulnerable out of the
rain into the branches. They burn too
quickly to warm the hands of those who